“On the road again. Just can’t wait to get on the road again.” Good old Willie Nelson’s lyrics keep running through my mind! In less than two weeks, we will be heading back to Chiang Mai, Thailand. This time around, we will be staying for a little over 6 months! Last year, we had intended to stay for two months, but immigration had other ideas…If you are interested in the gory details, please click here. 

So, this time around, we decided to bite the bullet and pay for visas. We went for the non-O retirement visa which will allow us to stay for 90 days and then get a 12-month extension.  If you want to read about the process, click here. We plan on staying for 6 months this time around and will be once again staying at the Smith Suites. We love the location, and the apartments are quite nice. 

We actually had intended to leave for Thailand earlier this Fall, but life got in the way. Last year during our trip, my hip started to hurt. I visited the doctor upon our return to the US and learned that I have arthritis (both hips) and would need to have my hip replaced (only one hip at this time).  I was anxious to get it taken care of, but unfortunately, due to Covid, elective surgeries had been postponed and so there was a huge backlog to get through before my surgeon could fit me in. He estimated a 6-month wait and that turned out to be pretty accurate. I had the surgery in mid-September and was shocked at how quickly I recovered. I am now back to normal and ready to go! 

Our plans this time around are to stay in Chiang Mai for most of the time. We are planning to take the train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok at some point in the trip; we do enjoy train travel and figure it is a wonderful way to see some of the countryside. Most people that take that particular journey take the night train, but we will go during the day so we can see the scenery. Once in Bangkok, we are interested in going to Kanchanaburi to visit the death railway historical sites. We had tried to do this on a previous trip, but I got sick and so we had to cancel. We may or may not also head to southern Thailand. Southern Thailand is known for its beautiful beaches, but also for lots of partying and sex tourism. Shockingly, we are into neither of those, so not totally sold on visiting down south.  

If we do venture away from Chiang Mai, I will definitely post pictures. I probably won’t post much (if any) while we are in Chiang Mai, given that I have posted about the city extensively on previous trips there. Just can’t wait to get on the road again!